It may help to think of it as the authors invoking the idea of Maxwell’s demon to illustrate the elegance of the enzymes involved instead of an actual Maxwell’s demon that would literally decrease the entropy in the system over time.
Comment on Enzymes work as 'Maxwell's demon' by using memory stored as motion
IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
but. the whole point is Maxwell’s demon is that it would violate thermodynamics
spinne@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
this is how scientists do clickbait
AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The point of Maxwell’s demon is that there’s an intimate connection between thermodynamic entropy and information: increasing entropy reduces information, but adding information can reduce entropy.
I think what they’re getting at here is that the enzyme’s state preserves information about its recent past which it then uses to reduce entropy the way Maxwell’s demon does.
IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
going from a simple though experiment to being able to quantify the thermodynamics of information is one of my favorite concepts.